September 25, 2021, is the 140th anniversary of Lu Xun's birth. On May 7, 1898, the 17-year-old Lu Xun left his hometown for the first time and joined his uncle Zhou Jiaosheng, who was serving as the supervisor of the Jiangnan Water Teacher's School, and began the Five Years of Nanjing. In order to avoid the worldly vision of the people of the times, Lu Xun changed his real name from Zhou Zhangshou to Zhou Shuren.
"Close-up view of Lion Rock, distant view of Mochou Lake"
Why is Jiangnan Water Teachers School located in Nanjing, rather than Shanghai, which is closer to the sea?
The 1892 "Compilation of Gezhi" explained it like this: "Jiangning is a moderate place in Nanyang, the constitution is close at hand, and it is easy to supervise and assign." It is also located in a secluded area, suitable for hard reading, no bustling scenery, no distraction. ”
The Jiangnan Water Teachers' School began construction in May 1890, was completed in August, and officially opened in September. The school houses have been carefully designed, the official hall, living room and apprentice house, dining room, and sleeping room are all in Chinese style, and the craft room and foreign teaching room of the Western School are imitating Western style, "very neat and extremely elegant". The landmark building is a "chimney" and a "high mast", which happens to be the representative of the pipe wheel and the driving hall.
When Lu Xun recalled the towering mast, he said: "What is lovely is the mast... Because it was tall, the crow magpie could only stop on its wooden plate halfway through. If one climbs to the top, one can see the Lion Mountain up close and look at Mochou Lake in the distance... And it is not dangerous, there is a net underneath, even if it falls, it is like a small fish falling in the net.
The 20-foot-tall "cute mast" in the Jiangnan Water Teacher's School
The first general office of the Jiangnan Water Division School was Jiang Xitong, who would be run by Shen Yuqing, who was the son of Shen Baozhen, the minister of shipping. Flipping through the "Concise Statutes of the Jiangnan Water Teacher School" published in the "Bulletin of all Nations", it can be learned that the Jiangnan Water Teacher School recruitment examination, first try in English, translation, geography, arithmetic, all have considerable, in order to be selected.
In Jingxing in Shanghai, Jiangnan Water Teachers Academy has a place to recruit students and publishes admissions advertisements. Advertising Cloud: "Every day from nine o'clock to four o'clock, one exam after another, after taking enough, it will be taken to Jinling to open a business, the school is about to open, and all students near and far are looking forward to arriving quickly." ”
For the average child, the attraction of the academy mainly comes from its generous treatment, not only does not charge tuition, but also eats, pen and paper and other living expenses, daily expenses are free, but also according to the degree of English, receiving a different amount of silver per month.
However, the innate disadvantages of the academy are also obvious. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, in addition to the imperial examination, there were still several paths for scholars to go: one was the shushi; the second was the physician, who could be called a Confucian doctor, who was more generous than the ordinary doctor; the third was the xuemu, also known as the "master"; the fourth was the two professions of money and pawn. In addition, it is not something that a person in a long robe can do.
Lu Xun described the situation in this way: "However, Yi cried, which is exactly what was reasonable, because at that time, reading and taking the exam was the right way, and the so-called study of foreign affairs, the society thought that he was a desperate person, so he had to sell his soul to the devil, to be doubly ridiculed and rejected, and Guan Yi could not see his son. "The reason why the mother cries is that on the one hand, she is reluctant to leave the child's hometown for the first time, and on the other hand, she is worried about her son's choice of path and the uncertainty of the future.
"Homework is sloppy, progress is slow""
Lu Xun arrived in Nanjing in the year of the Penghu Reform And applied for the Jiangnan Water Teachers' Academy. The homework of the Jiangnan Marine Teachers Academy is divided into "classroom lessons" and "boat lessons" (internships), and the study period is about seven years, and Lu Xun enters the management shift.
Lu Xun copied the lecture notes of "Introduction to Water Science", the original of which is stored in the Lu Xun Memorial Hall in Shaoxing
Students wake up at six o'clock every morning, blow the trumpet at breakfast after a while, and after breakfast until eight o'clock before class is target shooting time, "later probably because of bullet costs, it was changed to every other day." Morning classes are from eight to twelve o'clock, with a ten-minute break at ten o'clock.
After the morning class, lunch blows call for collective exercises, the new students only dance dumbbells, and then play the wooden stick like a wine bottle, and those who have some skills play wooden horses, ladders and tricks such as flipping heels and dragonflies, "climbing once a week, which is the most convenient, according to the ranking of two people in a class, climb up and down, as long as five minutes, the big exam to climb to the top."
In the afternoon, classes are held from 1:30 to 4:00, and military exercises are done before dinner, although not every day, but there are always more than four times a week. After dinner, the time is free to roam, some do homework, some read idle books, some chat. At 9:30, roll call rounds. At ten o'clock, blow the trumpet, but "to work hard or talk until twelve o'clock, nothing is impossible."
"I always feel inappropriate, but I can't describe it." Now I have found a roughly similar word, 'black smoke miasma', which is almost the same. This is the evaluation given by Lu Xun, who has only been in the Jiangnan Water Master Academy for a few months.
What exactly does "black smoke miasma" refer to, or what is the reason for Lu Xun's withdrawal from school soon? There are probably two factors: one is the ideological conservatism of the school, and the other is the students' playtime.
Let's first look at the school's ideological conservatism.
1898 was the year of the young Guangxu Emperor's vigorous reforms, and it was also a year of confrontation, conflict and competition between the old and new factions. For this top-down change, young people who pay attention to current events cannot but be deeply affected. However, in the face of the ideological suppression of the academy and other conditions, the students helplessly sighed: "Homework is sloppy, progress is slow." ”
The old-fashioned uncle even said bluntly to Lu Xun: "There is something wrong with your child, take this article to read, copy it down and look at it." This article that Lu Xun read and copied should be Xu Yingqi's rebuttal of Kang Youwei's recital published in the "Declaration". Xu Yingqi denounced the "evil deeds" and "evil deeds" of Kang Youwei, the "red man at that time", and asked Guangxu to dismiss him and expel him back home.
Interestingly, Lu Xun later had a deeper connection with the Xu Yingqi family: his partner Xu Guangping's grandfather was Xu Yingqiu, who had served as a political envoy in Zhejiang, and Xu Yingqi was Xu Yingqi's brother.
"New Measurement of the Whole Map of Jinling Provincial City" (Partial) 1903 Edition
Let's look at the students' playtime.
Two days before Lu Xun arrived in Nanjing, the "Declaration" published a chronicle of the "great disturbance of the school" of the students of the Jiangnan Water Teachers' Academy: There were about one hundred and twenty students in the first, second, and third classes of the Water Teachers' Academy, and the number of them was large, and the good and the bad were different, and there were many of them who were carefully engaged in their work, and those who abandoned the work class and took advantage of the troublemaking were also complex and rich, and even made trouble with the masses with a small mouth.
Lu Xun "always felt inappropriate", so he chose to flee. Interestingly, he has since fled again in Tokyo, Japan, for similar reasons, such as the fact that international students who "learn to dance" in the evening stomped on the floor and "banged and banged on the sky, and the room was full of smoke and dust".
Lu Xun, who was "studying solidly", felt uncomfortable when he met those international students who did not seek progress, went to Ueno Park during the day to enjoy cherry blossoms, and learned to dance at night. When his classmates told him that "Sendai Medical College is located in the middle of nowhere, there are no Chinese students", he decided to go to Sendai. Thus, a new page in life was opened.
"Lu Xun Background Examination" by Chen Zhanbiao, The Commercial Press
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gu Xuewen Text Editor: Xia Bin Title Map Source: Xinhua News Agency Infographic Photo Editor: Xiang Jianying
Source: Author: Chen Zhanbiao